Handbook for Strategic HR

OD Network

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780814432501
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Personalmanagement

This forward-thinking book introduces HR leaders to core organization development strategies and skills--providing creative approaches, practical tips, and proven methods to help them succeed.

Since the 1990s, a transformation has occurred within the role of human resources departments. HR professionals are being called upon to help determine priorities in running the business, craft organizational development strategies, and shape the culture within their company.

Through a compendium of the best thinking on the subject, you'll learn how to strategically:

• identify where best to foster change in the organization,
• team up with consultants and senior-level staff in leading a change project,
• improve employee engagement,
• include others in the important work of the organization,
• and operate effectively in cross-cultural and virtual working situations.

Comprehensive and practical, Handbook for Strategic HR includes 78 articles that will enable you see the big picture roles and responsibilities of human resource professionals today. Best of all, this book is approved for HRCI Recertification Credit--helping you to advance your career in numerous tangible ways.

SECTION ONE

The Changing World of Human Resources

Introduction

David Jamieson and John Vogelsang

VOICES FROM THE FIELD ¹

Business leaders are actually aware of the need for HR to shed its traditional role. They want HR professionals to step up to a more value-adding contribution. They are looking to HR for help in crafting strategy, determining priorities in running the business, designing and structuring how work gets done, shaping culture, and, yes, managing people systems to give a sense of stability. Moreover, the business leaders know they need HR professionals who are credible activists who will push, prod, and even lead some discussions that chart the course for the future.

—Dave Hanna

If you [the HR leader] come to clients with a large set of tools, you will be viewed as a great craftsperson. If you come with a set of principles that help them learn and solve problems in a more sustainable way, then you will be seen as a successful Business Partner.

—Chuck Mallue

What would have been most helpful to my career as an internal, was to have done even more to accelerate the development of my colleagues OD competencies.

—Maria Ramos

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IS CHANGING

Since the 1990s, Human Resources (HR) has become a high-quality service provider that plays a trusted advisory, business partner, and consultant role in strategic decision-making. While HR continues to perform the still important transactional functions, HR Business Partners are working with executives and managers to set priorities and guide change for organizations.

How has this happened? The two chapters in this introductory section give a historical perspective on this change and current opportunities. Edgar Schein (2010) in “The Role of Organization Development in the Human Resource Function” describes the four evolving roles for HR Managers:

Role 1: Champion of the Employees—to be the spokesperson for the employee.

Role 2: Expert Administrator—the job of managing the pay and benefits system, which requires knowledge of the relevant systems and procedures, and often requires the HR Manager to defend procedures that often appear to be too bureaucratic to the employees.

Role 3: Partner in Strategy—human resources becomes important to the success of the longer range strategies, and the HR function participates in the strategy and planning process.

Role 4: The Professional HR Manager—HR managers function as change agents and process consultants and bring research knowledge and practice into the organization.

Dave Hanna (2010) in “Organization Development and Human Resource Management” contends that the results of the 2007 HR Competency Study, co-sponsored by the RBL Group and the University of Michigan Ross School, urges the coming together of HR and Organization Development (OD). The study identifies six competencies that are essential for an HR professional who adds value to a business. These competencies are based for the most part on what have generally been considered OD skills.

• The Credible Activist: being credible (respected, listened to) and active (offering a point of view and challenging others’ assumptions)

• The Credible Activist: being credible (respected, listened to) and active (offering a point of view and challenging others’ assumptions)

• The Operational Executor: flawlessly executing the operational aspects of managing people and organizations

• The Business Ally: contributing to the success of the business by understanding its social context, how it makes money, and how to organize its parts to make more money

• The Talent Manager/Organization Designer: mastering theory, research, and practice in both talent management and organization design

• The Strategy Architect: having a vision of how the organization can succeed in the marketplace and actively shaping the strategy to fulfill this vision

• The Culture and Change Steward: recognizing, articulating, and shaping corporate culture and facilitating the change processes required to keep the culture aligned with the business needs

The study also highlights the drive towards genuine integration among strategic aspects of HR functions, the role of human capital in organizational success, and the essential processes of managing change.

Making the transition to and succeeding at a Business Partner role may require some mindset shifts and a mix of core knowledge and skills, much of which have been fundamental to OD: consulting, action research, systems and strategic thinking, organizational design, and the competencies to partner with clients to initiate and implement change.

Mindset Shifts

The essential mindset shifts include (Jamieson et al., 2012):

• From past-focused to future-focused. Many of the answers to today’s challenges cannot be found in the past since the issues never existed before. For example, if an organization clings to a rule that an employee needs to be in a role for two years before being promoted, and if the employee is a top talent who feels ready for the next role, the organization may lose the employee.

• From discipline-focused to having an organization focused. Business Partners must focus on the organization’s strategic needs and use more innovation, creativity, and problem-solving to find unique solutions.

• From authoritative to consultative. Business Partners need to work in partnership and as equals with other business leaders and use consultative practices and influence methods to provide credible help to all parties as they strive to understand the human perspective in relation to business decisions.

• From service provider serving internal customers to partner with other leaders. A big shift needs to take place from being on call as services are needed or dealing with policy and compliance needs to understanding how to act in equal ways and in partnership with others that address the new organizational needs and the unprecedented challenges.

• From being an HR professional in a business to being a business professional who specializes in OD/HR perspectives. Some HR practitioners are highly specialized in a particular discipline and create programs, policies, and processes focused on the discipline rather than the business. They need, however, to understand business issues and have the ability to create high impact OD/HR solutions.

• From focus on and measurement of activities to results-based accountability. Results must be measured in terms that relate to the bottom line rather than inputs like number of training hours, number of people completing performance evaluations, or number of new benefits offered. The new HR must relate important outcomes to business metrics.

Core Knowledge and Skills

HR Business Partners need strength in four competency areas in order to build a successful, progressive, and respected role. The areas are:

• Understanding the business of the organization

• Strategic Human Resources

• Foundational Organization Development

• Partnership

Understanding the Business

HR professionals need to be knowledgeable about the business of their organization, whether it is a corporation, a nonprofit, a school, or a hospital. This includes what it does, its products or services, customers, markets, competitors, how it works, its business model, performance and financial drivers, human resources, the mission, direction, strategy, history, culture, environment, and global influences. The Business Partner is a business person who brings the special value and perspective of an OD/HR mindset. More simply, Business Partners need to know how the business makes and spends its money so they can effectively contribute to the bottom line and organizational sustainability.

Strategic Human Resources

The second critical area of knowledge and skills is in understanding the strategic aspects of HR work and how they differ from operational tasks. For example, understanding how to design and implement a total rewards compensation approach to support the behaviors that will meet the needs of customers is strategic; administering employee benefits is operational. Anticipating the talent needs created by a new strategy is strategic; updating employee records is operational.

Foundational Organization Development

The OD capabilities needed by the HR Business Partner help create an environment in which employees can operate at their fullest potential. They include the ability to look at organizations as systems and understand them from the individual, team, and organizational perspectives. Specifically, this understanding includes the processes of whole systems change, organization design and strategy development, leadership development, team development, organization diagnostics and assessment, coaching, facilitation, organization culture change, and the use of applied behavioral sciences to improve the effectiveness of human system dynamics.

Partnership

The fourth area has to do with understanding how to become a partner with senior leadership and management. This involves developing collaborative relationships, including understanding interpersonal relations, personality characteristics and styles, and having empathy. To be successful, the HR Business Partner must go beyond discussions at the task level to include building relationships on a personal level. Openness and trust are the foundation of a strong partnership that is strong enough to sustain frank discussions of differences and the transformation of conflicts.

Another important aspect of partnering can be learned from the sales process. In working with their customers, good sales people know how to listen, develop relationships, and identify areas where they can add significant value. Aspects of this approach can, and should be utilized by Business Partners to move from an “internal customer” mindset to a strategic business partner mindset.

Once this quality of partnership is achieved, the relationship enables the Business Partner and the internal partner to talk openly and freely, inform each other, collaborate and act authentically in jointly developing goals and executing strategies. Open discussions are necessary so the goals, projects, and initiatives necessary to add real value to the business can be jointly developed.

What You Will Find in This Resource

Before beginning to compile this resource, we had conversations with many HR professionals and both internal and external OD consultants. Based upon what they identified as important to their roles, we gathered key articles from the OD Practitioner written by seasoned OD practitioners that can provide the HR Business Partner with essential principles, creative approaches, practical tips, and proven methods to be a successful partner in crafting strategy, determining priorities, and helping shape an organization’s future. HR professionals can use this resource to deepen their knowledge and skills in how to:

• Partner with senior level staff and internal or external consultants in leading a change initiative

• Think systemically and strategically identify where best to foster change in the organization

• Effectively use one’s self as an instrument of change

• Put employee engagement to practical use and engage “minds, hearts, and hands” in the important work of the organization

• Operate effectively in the global market, cross-cultural situations, and virtual working arrangements

The resource is divided into six sections:

• Consulting and Partnership Skills

• Use of Self as an Instrument of Change

• Thinking Systemically and Strategically

• Employee Engagement

• Change Management

• Globalization, Cross-cultural Interaction, and Virtual Working Arrangements

Consulting and Partnership Skills

The role of the HR Business Partner is challenging and interesting with often conflicting accountabilities and allegiances to staff, management, clients, corporate headquarters, HR leadership, and consultants. As the role has shifted from personnel administration to business advisor, it has also become more complex, with multiple demands coming from multiple entry points in the system. The articles from the OD Practitioner in this section help explain the importance of a consultative mindset and approach, the challenges of being an internal consultant, and the steps to know in partnering with other business leaders, internal or external consultants in a change or innovation project.

Use of Self as an Instrument of Change

“Use of self” is the term OD practitioners employ to name the complex set of awareness and behaviors that make it possible to be genuinely helpful to others. Especially for the HR Business Partner, it is critical to recognize that tools and techniques are only part of the work with others. Many times, the most important influence on whether the situation changes is how HR Business Partners engage with their clients. Are they modeling the participative and collaborative principles they espouse and promote? Are they willing to listen to what is uncomfortable to hear? Are they willing to examine their own habitual behaviors and assumptions—those that serve them well and contribute to their success with others and those that may be hindering their success? The chapters in this section explain the use of self, deal with the mental maps that influence practitioners’ perception of themselves and others, and encourage continued learning for greater self-awareness and behavior change that will enable more effective work with others.

Thinking Systemically and Strategically

A successful HR Business Partner needs to move beyond just a focus on the individual to understand how the larger system, including groups, the organization as a whole, and the external environment, impact work performance, the readiness for change, and the capacity for creativity. What is labeled underperformance of an individual or a group may be the outcome of many influences including: unsatisfactory supervisory/co-worker relationship, organizational policies, and resource allocation, the organizational culture, the design of the organization, and changes in the external business environment. Operating from a systemic perspective also enables the HR Business Partner to gain a sense of where best to begin foste...